Velology is the study and collection of vehicle tax discs

Vehicle licence

A valid vehicle licence is required by law in some countries to be displayed on any registered motor vehicle if it is to be used or kept on a public road.-Worldwide:...

, a circular certificate placed on the windscreens of road vehicles to prove that vehicle tax has been paid. The word was created by combining the acronym VEL (vehicle excise license

Vehicle excise duty

Vehicle Excise Duty is a vehicle road use tax levied as an excise duty which must be paid for most types of vehicle which are to be used on the public roads in the United Kingdom...

) and -ology. Collectors are known as velologists.

Origins

The collection of tax discs was first popularised by Elite Registrations

Elite Registrations

Elite Registrations has been trading in personalised registration numbers since 1972. The company is based in Devizes, Wiltshire, UK.Elite Registrations started life with one man, Tony Hill, buying the cherished number HTV 1 back in 1972. This registration number was on a 1946 Morris Ten which cost...

, dealers in vehicle number plates, and has since developed a niche following. In response to the interest, a collector's magazine, The Velologist, is published monthly. The study of expired and historical tax discs is also a central component of an affiliated industry: the production of replica age-appropriate tax discs for collectors of vintage

Vintage car

A vintage car is commonly defined as a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930 known as the "Vintage era". There is little debate about the start date of the vintage period—the end of World War I is a nicely defined marker there—but the end date is a matter of a little...

 and classic car

Classic car

A classic car is an older car; the exact meaning is variable. The Classic Car Club of America maintains that a car must be between 20 and 40 years old to be a classic, while cars over 45 years fall into the Antique Class.- Classic Car Club of America :...

s; these can be legally displayed alongside the required modern disc or Exemption certificate.

Collectors value specimens which are intact, unfaded and rare. Those of particular interest include Emergency discs (serial number prefaced with an E, issued when supplies of normal discs were interrupted) and Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 discs. Another variation was the "Farmers' disc", identified by an "F", which was displayed on agricultural vehicles.

History of tax discs

Although vehicle excise duty

Vehicle excise duty

Vehicle Excise Duty is a vehicle road use tax levied as an excise duty which must be paid for most types of vehicle which are to be used on the public roads in the United Kingdom...

 was first introduced in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1889, it wasn't until 1 January 1921 that it became compulsory to display a tax disc

Vehicle licence

A valid vehicle licence is required by law in some countries to be displayed on any registered motor vehicle if it is to be used or kept on a public road.-Worldwide:...

 on the vehicle. Initially, they were issued quarterly or annually. Early discs were made from plain paper, without perforations; the selvedge was cut or folded to create the main circular shape. Colour printing was introduced in 1923. Advertising on the reverse of the disc was allowed from 1924, with companies such as Shell Oil placing advertisements. This was abolished in 1926, after which the reverse showed text relating to the refund available for unexpired licenses. Perforations were used from 1938, enabling a better fit within the standard disc holders; however, the perforations were missing from 1942 to 1952, perhaps as a result of equipment damage during the war

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In 1961 major changes occurred, with a redesign of the printed pattern – for better security – and a new system of monthly issues, rather than the standard December expiry of the past. From then on, the expiry month was displayed. From 2001, watermarking and embossing were added to prevent fraud.

Design

The design of British license disc

Vehicle licence

A valid vehicle licence is required by law in some countries to be displayed on any registered motor vehicle if it is to be used or kept on a public road.-Worldwide:...

 has varied over the decades since its introduction on 1 January 1921. Among the factors for its evolution is the changing legislation and the increase in security features to mitigate counterfeiting. The latest series (2003) incorporated a bar code to verify its authenticity with the vehicle it was registered to, and to increase efficiency of renewal applications as renewal via the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 was introduced.. A design variant was adopted in Wales in the early 1970s with the month expressed as a number instead of by name and other details printed additionally in Welsh. This was introduced when the government decided that all official documention in Wales would be bilingual, but it was judged that the print size would be too small for the name of month to be abbreviation and displayed in two languages. Later, this design with the month expressed as a number was adopted throughout the UK.

1921 series

The 1921 series was the first design of the license disc

Vehicle licence

A valid vehicle licence is required by law in some countries to be displayed on any registered motor vehicle if it is to be used or kept on a public road.-Worldwide:...

 which were required to be displayed in every British vehicle since 1 January 1921. They were issued with two possible lengths of duration: one year (annual) or three months (sometimes referred to as a quarterly licence). Quarterly licences were issued on coloured paper to differentiate between the two periods of duty they were issued for.

Annual Road Fund Licence (1921 and 1922)
Year of expiry	Main colour	Image (obverse)	Obverse	Reverse	Remarks
1921	None		Cross-shaped layout with emblems of Regions of the United Kingdom; Circumference text reads: “Expiring 31 Dec. [Year]. … Licence for a mechanically propelled vehicle Motor vehicle A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid... .”	Text within circular ring reads: “This Licence Card must be exhibited in the regulation position on the vehicle when in use upon a public road [See Note in the Licence Registration Book]. It must be given up to the Post Office or to the Registration Authority on expiry. A new licence cannot be issued until the old one is surrendered.”	(None)
1922

1923 series

Annual Road Fund Licence (1921-1931)
Year of Expiry	Main Colour	Image (obverse)	Lifespan of design	Obverse	Reverse	Remarks
1923	Green		Jan. 1923 to Dec. 1931	— Cross-shaped layout with emblems of Regions of the United Kingdom and vertical colour band — Circumference text reads: “Expiring 31 Dec. [Year]. … Licence for a mechanically propelled vehicle Motor vehicle A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid... .” — Background text: “Road Fund Licence”	Text within circular ring reads: “This Licence Card must be exhibited in the regulation position on the vehicle when in use upon a public road (See Note in the Licence Registration Book). It must be destroyed on expiry unless renewed at a Post Office when it must be surrendered.”	January 1923: First issue of annual licences with colour printing
1924	Red
1925	Blue				Advertisement for Shell Royal Dutch Shell Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...  Motor Oils
1926	Orange				Surrender of Licences text
1927	Purple
1928	Red
1929	Green
1930	Orange
1931	Blue

1938 series

The 1938 series of Annual licence discs were a minor design revision to the 1932 series, and were issued from 1 January 1938 to July 1950. The background pattern text was revised to read "Mechanically propelled vehicle licence", instead of "Road Fund Licence".

1951 series

The 1951 series were first issued on 1 January 1951 as a revision to the previous series. The emblems of Regions of the United Kingdom were replaced with the expiry year and the arrangement of the expiry date was modified to increase legibility

Legibility

Legibility is the degree to which glyphs in text are understandable or recognizable based on appearance. "The legibility of a typeface is related to the characteristics inherent in its design .....

. Licence discs issued for 1954 to 1956 removed the requirement for specifying the colour of the vehicle. A diagonal colour band overprint

Overprint

An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

was used for licences for 1951 and 1952, and a vertical band for the remainder of the series.

Annual Road Fund Licence (1951-1956)
Year of Expiry	Main Colour	Image (obverse)	Obverse	Reverse	Remarks
1951	Green		Cross-shaped layout with expiry year in black; circumference text: “Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949. - Licence for a mechanically propelled vehicle.”; background text: “Mechanically propelled vehicle licence”	Surrender of Licences (Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949, Section 12.)
1952	Orange
1953	Red
1954	Blue				Certain issues were misprinted with the 1953 expiry date and were overprinted with 1954 on the top quadrant.
1955	Brown
1956	Green

1957 series

The 1957 series were first issued on 1 January 1957 and continued until the replacement of quarter-year licences with four-month licences on 1 October 1960.

Annual Road Fund Licence (1957-1960)
Year of Expiry	Main Colour	Image (obverse)	Obverse	Reverse	Remarks
1957	Red		Expiry year flanked between issuing stamp area; circumference text: “Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949. - Licence for a mechanically propelled vehicle.”; background text: “Mechanically propelled vehicle licence”	Surrender of Licences (Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949, Section 12.)
1958	Blue				The type size of the expiry year was increased.
1959	Orange
1960	Green

1961 series

Annual Road Fund Licence (1961-present)
Year of Expiry	Main Colour	Image (obverse)	Lifespan of design	Obverse	Reverse	Remarks
1967	Green		Feb. 1966 - 1977	Coloured ribbon with month-year expiry date; circumference text reads: “This licence expires on last day of month shown”	Surrender of Licences (Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1962, Section 9.)
1983	Green		1977 - 1987	Expiry date (DD:MM:YY) over coloured ribbon.	Refund of Duty in plain text.
1985	Blue					Minor design revisions.
1986	Brown					Final year of brown-coloured licences to date.
1987	Purple					First issue of purple-coloured licences since 1927 (annual).
			1987 - 31/9/1992	Upper half: Expiry date (DD:MM:YY) over colour ribbon with continuous wavy text “DVLC”; two elliptical holes and “EXPIRES” above the ribbon, and “DVLC” embossing. Lower half: gradual shading and stamp area in metallic ink, with expiry date (DD:MM:YY) in pale colour; 4 rows of black dotted lines in pale colour; bottom-most line split by stamp area.	Refund of Duty; lower half inverse in colour.
1990	Purple
1992	Red
1993	Blue					Certain discs expiring in 1993 retain old features from the 1987 series.
			31/10/1992 - 31/9/2003	Upper half: Solid colour expiry date (MM YY) over colour ribbon with wavy text “EXPIRES”, with two elliptical holes near edge and “DVLA” embossing. Lower half: Monotonic shading of roughly ⅓-width sides, with expiry date (DD:MM:YY) and 4 rows of coloured dotted lines in pale colour; bottom-most line split by stamp area in metallic ink.	Refund of Duty and Non-transferability clause; lower half inverse in colour.
1994	Purple
1995	Green					Final year of green-coloured licences to date.
1996	Red

External links

• The Velologist
• History of the Tax Disc
• Vehicle Tax Discs